


That Bloody Little Blue Box

by Twilight2000



Category: Crossover Fandom, Dr. Who - Fandom, NCIS
Genre: Gen, NCIS - Freeform, Remix, crossovers, dr who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-31
Updated: 2010-07-31
Packaged: 2017-10-10 21:25:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/104447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilight2000/pseuds/Twilight2000
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ziva stumbles upon that blue police box again. This time though, Jo let's her in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Bloody Little Blue Box

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Opposite Numbers](https://archiveofourown.org/works/99695) by [Gray Cardinal (Gray_Cardinal)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gray_Cardinal/pseuds/Gray%20Cardinal). 



Ducking, Rolling, Sidestepping – when it came to bullets, these were all familiar to Ziva. Dealing with American idioms? That was harder.  
"Tony, what did I say wrong *this* time?"  
Tony, the senior agent on Ziva's team, was laughing at her again. He often did this, especially when her command of English was somehow less than perfect. Hell, he should speak six languages, thought Ziva! Then he could talk!  
"It's "Let the cat out of the bag" Ziva, not "Let the bat out of the cave" – Tony continued to snort and giggle. Partly he was amused, partly he knew it irritated Ziva no end when he did that.  
"Fine, Tony, whatever. Have you seen Gibbs this morning?"  
Still snort-laughing, Tony looked up from his computer, "Yea," he pointed up the big stairs in the middle of the section they had their desks in "He's upstairs in M-tac."  
Ziva looked perturbed. She had hit a brick wall, even if she had called it a stone wall, sending Tony into gales of laughter *again*, with her research on their current case and wanted to bounce it off Gibbs. He was very good for that, for all he never said more than two or three words at a time. The complete opposite of Tony.  
"…just like when Bogie was hunting the Treasure of the Sierra Madre, right Ziva?"  
Ziva shook her head, "Again, whatever Tony." She stared at her computer, hoping he'd take the hint.  
Gibbs appeared at the top of the stairs, "Come on!" he said as he ran down the stairs, over to his desk, grabbed his backpack and assumed his team was following as usual.  
###  
They arrived at the crime site, on one of those side streets that are so common in DC – small shops leading into a residential neighborhood. This one appeared to lead into a largely Italian neighborhood, if the shops were any indication.  
"Tony, pictures. McGee, help Ducky. Ziva, with me."  
Ziva and Gibbs went to look at the body. Ducky was already at work, checking liver temp and chatting with the recently deceased. "Well, young lady, you look as if you were expecting to finish up at home tonight. I'm so sorry your plans ran askew." Ziva often wondered what he expected to hear back, but it didn't seem to interfere with his work as far as she could tell.  
Gibbs leaned over, "Ducky?"  
"Jethro, I can tell you how long this young lady's been dead – but I'll be damned if I can figure out why on first investigation!"  
"That's odd for you Ducky."  
"Yes it is. And it's going to bother me all day. I'll know more when I get back to my lab." Ducky groused as he started to prep the body for transport.  
Gibbs nodded and stepped away. "Ziva, take McGee and see what you can find out from the store owners in this block."  
Ziva nodded, "McGee." Clearly, McGee thought, she expected he would follow her, she did not wait for him. Gibbs must be rubbing off on her.  
She walked to the end of the block, intending to start from one end and work her way to the other end. As she reached the last shop, she looked around the edge of the building, down the small street that went into the neighborhood.  
And there she saw it. Again. A blue police box. Just like the other crime scene.  
She stopped and turned to McGee "Come here. I need you to confirm something for me."  
As McGee made his way toward the edge of the building she heard a sound, like worn down break pads on metal. When she looked again to show McGee the item in question, it was gone.  
"That makes no sense. It was right there!"  
"What was right there, Ziva?"  
"Nothing, McGee. Nothing." She wasn't about to tell him she'd seen a TARDIS half a block down the street. He'd make fun of her all day. It'd be worse than "Elf Lord" had been for him.  
"Uh, OK Ziva. Shouldn't we get started?"  
She nodded. They walked into the first shop, it was a printer. They hadn't seen the woman and had no idea who she was. They ran into the same story at almost every shop on the block. The Italian deli was the one exception. The shop she'd died in front of seemed to at least recognize her.  
"Yea, she came in here for lunch pretty regularly, three-four times a week. Got a different sandwich every time. Said she didn't want to be bored. She barely got outside the doorway when she just crumpled to the ground like a rag doll. That's when I called you guys."  
Ziva nodded, "Thank you, sir. If you think of anything else…" she gave her card to the waiter and headed out of the deli with McGee.  
They finished the shops on the one side of the street and then the other. As they reached the little side street where she'd seen the TARDIS before, Ziva turned to look again. The TARDIS was exactly where she'd seen it before. This time she figured she'd tell McGee before it left. Without looking away, she called McGee's attention to it, "McGee, look!"  
McGee looked down the street – the wrong way. He saw nothing and by the time he'd looked the way Ziva intended, all he saw was sidewalk.  
"Um, Ziva?"  
"Nevermind, McGee." She still wasn't going to tell him about phantom props. She was beginning to wonder if she was actually seeing anything beyond a hallucination anyway.  
Having gathered next to nothing in terms of actual information and having seen Ducky leave with the body, they called for a taxi to get back to HQ. While they waited…  
McGee was standing next to Ziva, waiting for the taxi, wondering what had gotten into her. She didn't normally yell "look at this" even when there was something to look at. Tony'd been riding her lately, but not much worse than normal. He wondered what was going on with her.  
Just as the taxi pulled into view, Ziva looked down the street one more time. The TARDIS was there again. Fine. This time she was just going to run down the street and see if she could catch it before it left.  
McGee reached for the taxi as it arrived, "Ziva? Taxi!" he shouted.  
"Go ahead without me, McGee. I'll catch up later!"  
"Gibbs will want to know what you've found," McGee shouted back to her as he started to get into the taxi.  
"I'll play it by fear!" as she disappeared around the corner.  
McGee laughed quietly to himself as he closed the door, "Play it by ear, Ziva. Play it by ear." He shook his head. She'd get it eventually. At least Tony wasn't here to harass her.  
###  
Ziva walked toward the TARDIS and this time it didn't go anywhere. As she approached it, Jo Grant stepped out of the blue police box and smiled, pulling it closed behind her.  
"Hi again!" Jo smiled.  
Ziva was fairly sure Jo smiled at everything. Still not sure it wasn't a prop and an elaborate hoax, she smiled back. "Hi, Jo. So… What brings you to my crime scene again?" Play along, one caught more flies with syrup – or something like that – anyway.  
"Still time travelling."  
Ziva smiled. This woman was nuts. There's no way this could be real. "Really?"  
Jo gave a sad shake of the head, "You don't really believe me, do you?"  
Ziva figured truth was as good as anything, "Not really, no."  
"That's unfortunate. The Doctor told me he needs your help!"  
Ziva couldn't begin to figure out why someone was making her the butt of some elaborate practical joke. This was beyond even Tony's warped sense of humor. Keep playing along…  
"Alright, "Jo", I'll bite. What does The Doctor want?"  
Jo perked right up, "I knew you'd come 'round! I told him you would!" Even if Ziva hadn't been able to see her, she would have heard the grin in her voice.  
"Jo, what are you up to?" Ziva heard the gravelly voice behind her. It was accompanied by a British accent and a bit of a lisp, attached, she noted as she swung around to see who was sneaking up on her, to a rather tall, white haired gentleman wearing a cape and far too much frill down the front his shirt, not to mention a smoking jacket. In broad daylight. In DC.  
"Doctor! Ziva has said she can help!" Good lord, this woman was perkier than Tim on too much coffee, thought Ziva. And Doctor Who? This didn't look like any Doctor she'd seen on that series.  
The Doctor nodded his head at Ziva, "Well then, thanks are in order. From the look on your face, I expect you're familiar with some of my other visages?"  
Ziva looked from The Doctor to Jo and back again. She was beginning to wonder at the "hoax" nature of all this. "Um, I've seen two incarnations of The Doctor on television, both younger than you, sir."  
"Well, that makes sense, as I've traveled *forward* in time. But two? As quickly as all that? Heavens, I'll have to admonish myself to be far more careful or we'll burn through all our lifetimes before the end of this century." He seemed to be talking to himself. Ziva looked over at Jo, who shrugged her shoulders and seemed to be saying "He does this" with a "what are you going to do" sort of look on her face. "Good heavens," he continued to mutter as he walked into the TARDIS, "I've managed over 850 years on just three incarnations – how could I possibly burn through two more in the next 38 years?" Jo motioned to Ziva to follow them into the TARDIS.  
Ziva followed, reluctantly, listening to him go on about being wasteful and not very careful and wondering, at least a little, if this wasn't just a little too weird for a hoax. The thing looked exactly like it did on tv. Larger on the inside than the outside and a perfect match, dial for dial.  
"Jo, find that darned show on the telly, will you? Perhaps I can find out what's happened that way."  
Jo nodded and tuned the screen to show a current episode of Dr. Who.  
Ziva and Jo had a good snicker as The Doctor sputtered phrases like "Good Heavens! Am I even old enough to SHAVE?" and "What does he mean "ELEVENTH Doctor?" and "Unlimited regenerations? What is THAT supposed to mean?"  
"Sir, this is just a television show, right?" Ziva was a little confused, "I mean, it's got some bits right, but it's not truly autobiographical is it?"  
The Doctor, clearly Not Amused, responded in rather touchy fashion, "Jo, turn that infernal thing off. I've had quite enough of myself for one day." He turned to Ziva, "And to answer your question, yes, it's very biographical. Probably some damn leak through dimensions or some such. I'm sure all will be revealed soon enough. In the mean time, having no idea how much longer I have to set right what's been broken by my "descendants," I need your help young lady."  
Ziva could almost find herself snickering at the cantankerous gentleman, except that he'd just told her that tv show she occasionally watched was REAL. That took some of the funny out of it. What could he possibly need of her? She looked at him expectantly.  
"That young woman you found outside of the deli isn't who your lively doctor thinks she is. She is, in fact, the 10-times great granddaughter of the woman you think she is. Sent back to wipe out her whole maternal line, no one predicted she'd have an allergic reaction to a combination of the pollution of your time when coupled with the medicine she takes that suppresses her genetic tendency toward several diseases. It's not a medicine you have and clearly one that won't help anyone in this time. The real problem, Jo" he turned to the two young women he was speaking to, "Is that she's not actually dead. Ziva, while I'm quite sure your "Ducky" is an excellent medical examiner, he's not equipped to determine that as she's most likely in a medical coma that mimics death. Side effect of these drugs. One of the many issues with time travel." He reached into a large box, clearly searching for something.  
Ziva turned to Jo, "Alright. Let me take, for a moment, the idea that this is all real and not some elaborate hoax. The Doctor has decided I have UNIT clearance or whatever it was you were talking about before and we need to rescue a woman from 200 years in the future from Ducky's examining room?"  
Jo nodded, "Something like that," she said brightly.  
Great. "And we will explain that how, exactly? It's not as if I can just take the body away without anyone wanting some kind of explanation for the missing body. Not to mention, they think she's a petty officer in the Navy. Do you know where the petty officer is, by chance?"  
Jo shook her head. "Doctor?"  
The Doctor looked up from rummaging through the box, "I can't be bothered just now, Jo. See if you locate the missing young woman." With that, he returned to the box that held his attention so raptly.  
Jo started flipping switches and turning dials as the wall mounted screen got more and less fuzzy while Ziva watched. Finally, the screen unfuzzed to show a woman walking, apparently dazed, on a wooden pier. Ziva couldn't make out which particular pier, but it did narrow down the possibilities.  
"Jo," Ziva began, "Have you any idea why the woman in Ducky's lab would be sent here to kill her several greats grandmother?"  
Jo shook her head again. She did that a lot, it seemed to Ziva. "Nope. I'm sure The Doctor will explain it at some point. Doctor?"  
"Yes, Jo?!?" He sounded perturbed to Ziva's ear.  
"I've found her. She's at the Navy pier at a town called "Norfolk."  
Ziva spoke up, "I know where that is."  
The Doctor stood up, straightened out his coat and had a funny little grin on his face, "I'm quite sure you do, young lady. So, fortunately, does my TARDIS. What I really need to know is how much time we might have before your Doctor Ducky cuts into our little time traveler."  
Ziva thought for a moment. "First, it's Doctor Mallard, sir. Second, I don't know. In a normal case, he might wait till tomorrow, but as he's stumped as to what "killed" her, he might start tonight."  
The Doctor looked over at Jo, who shrugged again, and back at Ziva. "Right, then. So we need to be in two places at once, both picking up your petty officer and retrieving our young time traveler before she's diced by your Doctor Mallard. Any ideas, Jo?"  
Ziva was confused, "Doctor, if the petty officer is in Norfolk, why don't we just report her found?"  
The Doctor shook his head, "My dear young woman, that would mean she were in two places at one time. That sort of temporal confusion is to be avoided when possible. If we take her several greats-grandaughter away with us, we should substitute the young lady for her. Given the right sleeping draught, she'll wake up when Ducky begins his examination."  
Jo looked to Ziva like she was thinking really hard. Heck, she might have been for all Ziva could tell. She'd never met a woman she could read less. Perhaps it was the time differential.  
"Alright, Doctor, we don't want to have to go anywhere more than once. If Ziva gets Ducky to stop long enough for us to go get the petty officer and bring her back to the lab, make the change and be off, would that work?"  
"Excellent work, Jo!" He turned to Ziva, "Do you think you can lure your doctor away from his lab for a few moments, young lady? It seems the best way to keep the temporal confusion down to a minimum."  
Ziva figured it made as much sense as anything else she'd heard today, "I suppose sticking out my throat would be the best choice."  
Jo wrinkled up her nose and looked at The Doctor, confused.  
"I think she means her neck, Jo" The Doctor stage whispered from behind his hand to her.  
Ziva rolled her eyes and continued on. "I can try to get him to leave for a quick dinner or failing that, make up something that needs his attention somewhere else. How much time do you need?"  
"Very little time, perhaps two or three minutes, if all goes well. But we'll need to know that you've left the laboratory to know it's time to start our end of things."  
"Alright, Doctor. I'll get Ducky out of that lab so you can make the switch. Can you watch me with that little television too?"  
Jo nodded, looking just a little chagrined. "Yes, we can, Ziva."  
Ziva nodded back, "Excellent. Then you'll know when I have him out of the lab."  
Jo nodded again. The Doctor appeared to be focused on that box again.  
"Jo, what's in the box?"  
"Oh that? He's looking for his screwdriver."  
Ziva just shook her head. He really was as absent minded as he was on the show. She headed for the door, "It'll take me a good hour to get back to the lab by taxi, after that, it shouldn't be long."  
The Doctor stood up, "Good heavens, child! We can't wait a whole hour. We'll take you back ourselves. We should be able to find a place to sit her down that won't interfere too much, eh Jo?"  
Jo nodded, all smiles.  
Before Ziva could open the door, that strange metal on metal sounds started up again, the center of the control tower started going up and down and bright lights flashed all over the room.  
They were travelling. In a Blue Police Box. No one would ever believe her. Hell, she wasn't sure she believed her. Ziva held onto the nearest railing, remembering that the landings weren't always too soft. Or vertical.  
"Here we are, young lady! Out you go!"  
She turned to The Doctor, "It's Ziva, sir. Ziva David. And thank you for helping me sort this one out."  
"Ziva is it? Well, Ziva, it's we who should be thanking you!"  
Jo walked her to the front door, "I'm sure we'll cross paths again, Ziva"  
Ziva looked at Jo, "What makes you so sure of that?"  
Jo smiled, "You've scratched our back. We'll have to return the favor at some point!  
Ziva walked out of the TARDIS, wondering about what Jo said. "But my back does not itch!" She thought as she went to distract Ducky.

**Author's Note:**

> I set this in 2008 so Ziva could still believably have trouble with English – and so Ziva would Know Chris Eccleston &amp; David Tennant instead of Mark, as I'm more comfortable with David's body of work (Mark's is still pretty thin). For those unfamiliar with the mannerisms or the style of dress, this is the 3rd doctor, John Pertwee with his companion, Jo Grant. The rest of the cast is from NCIS.  
> Otherwise, this is a remix based on Graycardinal's work [](http:)"Opposite Numbers" - which I was quite amused by.


End file.
